Today's OEM Vehicle Batteries are manufactured to a specification describing performance, typically in Cold Cranking Amps (CCA) and Reserve Capacity (RC). A correlation to meeting these requirements can be defined as State of Charge (SOC) in terms of voltage, which can be related back to a percentage of original capacity. The battery manufacturer will deliver the battery to the vehicle manufacturer with at least a specified minimum percentage of SOC.
Vehicle Assembly Plant techniques vary for battery installation, and their internal processes can increase or decrease the SOC depending on engine run time, internal testing, and general practices by the work force, (e.g. practices related to auxiliary equipment or high electrical load vehicle equipment being left on while the vehicle is moving through the vehicle assembly process). Often, internal tests depend on the human factor for conducting them consistently. Consequently, there is frequently inconsistency, which means there may be a charge or discharge being experienced by the battery for the same vehicle and supposedly same assembly process.
Unfortunately this discharge condition can lead to premature battery drain leading to a vehicle being unable to start when it is first delivered to a dealer or perhaps even in an assembly plant staging lot. This is interpreted as a defective battery and ends up as early warranty, or what is commonly called zero-day warranty.
One way to improve initial Battery SOC is by increasing the engine RPM (revolutions per Minute) at Idle, (e.g. 650 RPM changed to 1000 RPM). However, this has raised some concern relative to a higher idle being somewhat of a shock to the customer, even if we utilize the programming capabilities of the vehicle computers to limit the engine RPM boost to only the very earliest part of vehicle life (vehicles are delivered to a customer with typically between 5 and 15 miles on the odometer). Even if the boosted idle is limited to the first 15 miles of vehicle life, the end customer may experience some displeasure for the first few miles of driving their newly purchased vehicle.
Another way to improve battery SOC is by overriding the RVC (Regulated Voltage Control) capabilities to command a maximum duty cycle of the alternator resulting in a maximized alternator output in terms of output voltage for the earliest part of the vehicle life. The alternator voltage regulator must be capable of receiving a PWM (Pulse Width Modulated) control signal. RVC is a technique used to optimize the charging of the battery based on a system that monitors battery SOC.
This invention is a unique method that provides at least minimized battery discharge relative to variable vehicle assembly practices, and potentially adds charge to all applications.